Surgical dressing



Oct. 11, 1949. B. D. MORGAN SURGICAL DRESSING Filed Oct. 6, 1947INVENTOR. BURTON D. MORGAN BY jofmazm HIS AGENT Patented Oct. 11, 1949SURGICAL DRESSING Burton D. Morgan, Fords, N. J assignor to J ohnson &Johnson, a corporation of New Jersey Application October 6, 1947, SerialNo. 778,251

4 Claims. (Cl. 128-156) This inventionrelates to surgical dressings,bandages and similar products and is concerned particularly withsurgical bandages of the type wherein a soft pad is attached to anadhesive coated carrier strip.

Surgical dressings and more particularly-first aid surgical dressingunits of the type that are known as adhesive bandages are intendedmainly for use in the emergency treatment of cuts, burns, abrasions andother injuries. Adhesive bandages comprise usually a carrier strip ofsurgical adhesive tape, a soft and/ or absorbent pad or dressingdisposed thereon, and a coating or protective layer overlying the tackyside of the adhesive tape and protecting the adhesive coating and thedressing. The invention is of special importance in connection withsurgical bandages having backings or carrier strips that are extensiblein at least one direction. Adhesive bandages of this type may be used onknuckles and fit readily and securely permitting tight attachment tothesurface of the skin without immobilizing that surface or the underlyingbody member and without discomfort to the wearer.

Adhesive bandages of the prior art, whether extensible or not, were madeusing relatively loose pads or dressings that were weak and frayablebecause composed of gauze, scrim, tobacco cloth, paper or other porousand loose fabrics. In other words, individual strands or fibres wereheld loosely by the fabric and tended to separate, particularly near themargins thereof. During manufacturing, packaging, and storage, the loosemargins of the pads were frayed frequently and frayed strands had atendency to attach to the vidual cut strands, which were highlyabsorbable;

caused absorption and accumulation of considerable impurities in use andcontamination of the adhesive bandage. Looseness of the pad also tendedto cause deformation and partial separa tion of this essential part ofthe adhesive bandage and poor contact with the wound whenever thecarrier strip was extended in the natural movement of the body. In someelastic types of adhesive bandages the uniform contact with the carrierstrip of the bottom surface of the pad larly pointed out in the appendedclaims.

K otherwise frayable layers.

limited severely the extension of the carrier strip.

rendering the bandage in effect non-elastic.

The invention aims to improve and simplify the production and use ofadhesive bandages that include soft pads. An object of the invention isthe prevention of fraying in pads that include Other objects are theprovision of an extensible bandage that can be extended without fraying;the provision of a pad present'ng no exposed cut sections of the fabric,and the provision of a bandage in which the central absorbent pad doesnot lose its shape, does not inhibit extension of the carrier strip yetadheres securely to the carrier strip even during and after extension ofthe latter. It is yet another object of the invention to provide anadhesive bandage with a soft pad, the center portion of which is adaptedto contact evenly most any surface to which the bandage is applied.

While some of the objects have been stated, the other objects and thenature of the invention will be readily understood from the followingdescription of the invention which provides an adhesive bandage having apad wherein the margins of the frayable fabric are folded, inwardly,adhered to the adhesive, shielded under a uniform exposed layer offabric and adapted to unroll on extension of said carrier strip withoutlimiting that extension. Thedescription should be read in connectionwith the accompanying drawing, and the. novel features will be particu-In the drawing in which certain preferred embodiments of the inventionare shown:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an adhesive bandage having itsprotective liners partially removed and embodying features of theinvention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken at righ angles to Fig. 2 onthe line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the pad section of the bandagepartially folded before application to the adhesive coated carrierstrip;

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view similar to Fig. 2, but illustratinganother embodiment of the invention.

The illustrated bandage is of elongated shape and, depending upon itssize, may be used to bandage small or large wound surfaces. Theembodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 1-4 comprises a carrier stripI0 that may be nonextensible but is preferably extensible as explainedhereafter having an adhesive coating H on its top surface and carryingthereon a nonfrayable pad I! which may be soft and/or absorbent andwhich comprises a piece of frayable fabric folded in accordance with theinvention. The folding of the frayablefabric is best illustrated inFig.4. A unitary piece of frayable fabric is folded inwardly upon itselfalong two folds l3 and 13a that are preferably substantially parallel toeach other as shown. Thus folded, the pad is folded again inwardly alongtwo additional folds H and Ila that are at substantially right angles tothe original folds and preferably parallel or nearly parallel to eachother. The resultant pad l2 has one layer that is free of marginalportions of the original fabric piece and that is adapted to cover thefree margins l6 and lia of the folded ends. If the pad I2 is positionedwith the above mentioned layer l5 placed topmost, a fiat unitary padpresenting one surface free of exposed margins results as shown in Fi 1.

%'his pad 12 is applied to the adhesive coated carrier strip III withmargins l3 in contact with the adhesive coating ll of the carrier stripl0,-

parallel to the length thereof and shielded by the exposed fabric layerl5 which is free of margins. In this manner, no margin of the frayablefabric is exposed and folds l3 and II form the exposed edges of the pad.Protective sheets I! made of paper, crinoline, or other textile materialare not part of the bandage proper and may or may not be applied to thecompleted bandage to cover the adhesive layer and to preventcontamination of the pad during handling and storage. The margins l6 ofthe fabric forming pad 12 are preferably in abutting central relationparallel to the folds as shown because this provides a uniform padpresenting a flat non-chafing exposed surface. Folding of the fabric toprovide either overlapped or separated margins thereof is, however,permissible and in fact, preferable in some embodiments of the inventionand for some uses. On extension of the carrier strip ill, the adhesivecoating ll releases the edges of the folded pad I! near folds l4 and Maand this permits slight unrolling of the folded pad. Accordingly,extension of the bandage is not limited by a rigid non-extensible pad asin the prior art and on extension of the carrier strip, a

smooth and presentable pad results that is not distorted unevenly byresistance of individual strands against that extension.

Fig. 5 illustrates an embodiment of the'invention, in many respectssimilar to the above described embodiment except that the abuttingmargins l8 of the fabric layer are slightly overlapped close to thecenter of the pad l9 and between the top layer l5 and the adhesivecoated carrier strip ID. This overlap 2U insures good contact betweenthe wound surface and the pad which otherwise would tend to be somewhatdepressed along its central line when the carrier strip expands andseparation of the margins occurs. Throughout Fig. 5, similar numeralsrefer to parts that are similar to parts of the first embodiment.

In either embodiment and in modifications of the invention, the carrierstrip may comprise any of the fibrous or other backings that are usefulin the adhesive tape industry. Cloth and particularly elasticized orextensible cloth is preferred, but one may use paper, non-woven bondedwebs, tissue, synthetic or natural films such as cellophane, rubber,cellulose, acetates, cellulose acetate butyrate, cellulose acetatepropionate, other cellulose esters or others, polyvinyl esters,

salts or acetates, polyethylene, superpolyamldes and the like. Asindicated earlier in this specification, the pad itself is preferablyporous, soft and/or absorbent, and may be composed of any "material thedescription of which fits within these terms. The protective layer willusually be crinoline, crinkled paper, treated gauze or tobacco cloth,cloth, a min or any material that will adhere but slightly to theadhesive surface and that can be removed without disintegration andwithout destroying i-that surface. The adhesive itself may be any of awide number of pressureor solvent-sensitive adhesives, including forexample those based on rubber, glue, butadiene polymers andinterpolyiners, polyisobuty'lene, and its interpolymers, acrylic ormethacrylic polymers and interpolymers and the like. The finishedadhesive bandage is usually sterilized and completely sealed in sterilecondition, for instance, in accord ance with Ganz Patent 2,329,262,issued on September 14, 1943.

The invention provides an adhesive bandage presenting no exposed marginwhich could become frayed. Accordingly no loose strands of the pad willpresent themselves and the folded pad will not give way duringstretching of the bandage should an elastic strip be used, and willprevent fraying of the pad and of the bandage. In addition the pad hasdiscontinuous contact with the adhesive coating of the carrier strip andpermits accordingly full extension of the carrier strip. The product ofthe invention may be used for all purposes for which adhesive bandagesof the prior art have been used in the past and will perform better andmore reliably when so used.

While two principal forms of the bandage embodying the improvements ofthe invention have been shown, it will be understood that these havebeen shown merely by way of example and that various modifications andchanges in the details thereof, for instance, additional or nonparallelfolds or additional adhesive layers, can be made without departing fromthe principles and spirit of the invention or from the scope of theappended claims.

The claims are:

1. An adhesive bandage comprising a carrier strip, an adhesive coatingthereon and a nonfrayable pad adhering to said adhesive coating andcomprising a frayable fabric folded inwardly and toward said adhesivecoating at all of its margins thereby presenting one exposed layer freeof margins of said fabric and an opposite layer shielded by said exposedlayer, composed of marginal portions, facing said adhesive coating, andattached thereto.

2. An adhesive bandage comprising a carrier strip, an adhesive coatingthereon and a nonfrayable pad adhering to said adhesive coating andcomprising a unitary piece of frayable fabric folded inwardly and towardsaid adhesive coatin at all of its margins thereby presenting oneexposed layer free of margins of said fabric and an opposite layershielded by said exposed layer, composed of marginal portions, facingsaid adhesive coating, and attached thereto.

3. An adhesive bandage comprising an extensible carrier strip, anadhesive coating thereon and a non-frayable pad adhering to said adhesive coating and comprising a frayable fabric folded inwardly andtoward said adhesive coating at all of its margins thereby presentingone exposed layer free of margins of said fabric and an opposite layershielded by said exposed layer,

posed layer free of margins of said fabric and an 10 opposite layershielded by said exposed layer,

composed of marginal portions, facing said adhesive coating, andattached thereto.

BURTON D. MORGAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,911,291 Reynolds May 30, 19332,029,260 Eustis et al Jan. 28, 1936 2,321,363 Crowley June 8, 1943

